Addicted
by SpikeFan4Life95
Summary: Willow and Spike form a rather disconcerting addiction, at least that's what they both believe, yet neither of them is willing to stop. Spillow! AU Season 6
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** All Characters belong to Joss and Mutant Enemy, except for Richard and any random characters I throw in.  
><strong>Summary: <strong> Willow and Spike form a rather disconcerting addiction, at least that's what they both believe, yet neither of them is willing to stop. After rescuing some girls from demons and after an incident involving some blood, Willow and Spike find themselves in a complicated situation.  
><strong>AN: **AU Season 6, Buffy and Angel are close friends and on talking terms and she spends a lot of time in LA, Spike and Buffy never had their sexual relationship, and Tara and Willow break up sooner than in the series, and neither wants to get back together. I think that about sums up the changes I made. I think this is one of the 'darker' fics I've ever written, and it will remain that way. Enjoy!

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><p>The night air was crisp and cool against Willow's pale cheeks as she wandered towards the warehouse Giles had told her a few demons were holed up in. If Buffy wouldn't have been off visiting Angel in L.A, Willow wouldn't have even had to be there, with Spike no less. She didn't mind him, but he wasn't exactly the poster boy for stable lately. Not that he ever had been. Buffy had blabbed on and on about Spike's failed seduction of her and how she had to keep shooting him down. Seeing the hollow look in his eyes and the hopelessness etched onto his face when he thought nobody was looking, Willow figured shooting him down involved Buffy verbally ripping him to shreds and degrading him until he felt worse than dirt. Honestly, that's how Buffy always treated him, but Willow hadn't paid much attention before, especially considering he had been horribly terrifying, even with the chip. Now that he had stuck around after Buffy died, and even when she was brought back and treated him like crap again, he had stayed, and this drastically changed Willow's view of him. They had an uneasy relationship that wasn't quite a friendship, but perhaps a mutual understanding of each other. When Willow went through her lesbian stage with Tara, Spike had been the only one to truly accept it. Nobody else really tried to, they just pretended it didn't make them feel uncomfortable.<p>

Willow had been having these internal tirades constantly lately. It might have to do with the fact she had so much free-time on her hands. Now that Buffy was back and accepting of the fact she had been pulled out of heaven – which Willow still felt immeasurably bad about – Willow didn't have to worry about taking care of Dawn. Also, since Tara had left her a few months ago because of her excessive use of magic, she didn't have a girlfriend to worry about pleasing. They had parted on good terms and still talked to each other when Tara came to visit Dawn, but there would be no romance between them anymore. Each of them had just changed too much. Willow wanted to be embracing her magical skills and Tara just wanted to be in a relationship not solely based in magic. So with all this extra time, Willow had started up some college courses again since she had to take time off in order to take care of Dawnie.

Since Willow was still the only one who didn't seem to mind working with Spike, she had asked him to tag along so he could help her kill stuff. That normally could sway him to come along. She figured he needed a distraction every now and then considering he seemed to be constantly inebriated. Buffy had really metaphorically shoved a stake through his heart, but Willow figured that was part of the job description. Of course Spike had griped about it in his usual snarky way, at least until Willow offered to buy him more scotch. That had shut him up pretty quickly. Now that left them here, walking in silence to the bad part of Sunnydale, in the industrial district where warehouses lined the road. Most were dilapidated and filled with all sorts of creatures that go bump in the night, but that wasn't of concern to Willow tonight. She was on a mission to uncover some headquarters of a virgin slave trade. This had grown in popularity in the recent months apparently, but Willow had been a bit distracted to really be on the supernatural up and up. If rumors from Willie's bar were to be believed, virgins were a hot commodity in the demon world, and useful for all sorts of evil deeds, Willow even knew a few spells that the blood of a virgin was useful for.

Of course she had only briefly visited the idea of _actually_ using it. Glancing down at the map she had worked on earlier, the one she had cast a spell on to locate one of the demons Anya was convinced ran the whole Sunnydale operation, it looked like they had arrived.

"I think this is it, Spike. Does it look like a secret lair for evil deeds?" She asked with a slight smile on her lips. Spike just rolled his eyes. He wasn't exactly well tempered tonight.

"Well, considering you said secret, I'd deduce you wouldn't be able to actually tell if it was the place or not. Didn't you have some map or something? You better not be wasting my time, Red, I've got cable TV to watch," Spike said with a scowl. He wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with any of the Scoobies, not even Red, the least annoying of the lot. Spike liked that she had more of a darker side to her. She wasn't just the little bookworm, nerd she'd been in high school; she had power now, and the urges to use that power. Spike could see clear as day that she had an addiction of sorts to the magic, it was probably like a power trip for her, which was yet another reason to add to his growing list of reasons why magic wasn't such a great idea.

Willow heaved a sarcastically dramatic sigh at him before responding to his usual snide remarks. "Well drat, I guess this money will just keep burning a hole in my pocket huh? Gosh, I'm so crushed that I won't have to buy alcohol for a vampire that doesn't want to tag along in the first place." As expected, Spike glared at her, but kept silent as he brushed past her to break into the locked warehouse. He jiggled a make-shift lock pick in the door while Willow watched with interest. Was there anything bad and illegal he hadn't done yet? Before she had a chance to explore _that_ train of thought, the door unlocked with a soft click. Smiling smugly to himself, he pushed open the door and stepped inside, a hand near the stake in his coat pocket, just in case. This was a fairly small and disorganized organization compared to others Spike had seen operated in other parts of the country. There were probably only about five demons running this whole gig. Willow glanced around the room, searching for signs of life. The plan was to kill the demons and bring the girls trapped inside to safety. It was easier said than done considering neither of them knew just what they were walking into. Even Willow had the sense to not talk and have one of her babble fests, and both were concentrated on assessing their surroundings. Spike was obviously better than her at that, because he suddenly yelled to her, "duck!" and she had immediately done so without a conscious thought.

A loud whirling sound buzzed above her, right about where her head would have been if she hadn't listened to Spike. Before she could even partially figure out what had happened, Spike was across the room and in a heavy fight with a demon. There was the sound of glass breaking behind her and she hopped to her feet and reeled around to find a demon busting out the glass on a case containing a fire extinguisher. He yanked it out and wielded it, running towards Willow. She yelped, but dodged his swing at her. She spun around, behind him now and sent a whirling kick to his back. Of course it had probably hurt her more than him, but at least she tried. It still distracted him though. He grabbed at his back, holding the extinguisher one handed, and Willow took advantage of this opportunity to desperately search for a weapon. Spike and his demon were still going at it full-force, but the demon was obviously on the losing end of this fight. After a particularly painful sounding punch to the jaw, the demon was literally spun around and knocked onto the floor.

"Red! Catch!" Spike yelled and somehow she managed to avoid being stabbed by the knife he threw at her. He must have taken it from the demon during their fight. Willow barely managed to catch the darn thing and a sharp pain traveled through her hand, but she didn't have time to notice or dwell on it. The demon she had been fighting was swinging his weapon at her head. She managed to duck, but the brunt of the extinguisher still managed to painfully clip her shoulder, sending a painful shockwave through her. She cursed and stabbed at him with her knife, connecting with his leg. With some sheer luck she had managed to nick a major artery and blood began spurting out of the wound. He howled in pain as his blood splattered all over Willow and the concrete floor. He screamed and grabbed his leg, but it was too late to stop the bleeding. He was already weakened and in a minute or so he would bleed out completely.

Focusing on the rest of her surroundings, Willow heard the sounds of Spike fighting, and she hustled over to go try and help him out. There were two dead demon bodies on the ground, each with their necks snapped, and Spike was busy dealing with two others. When he locked gazes with her, he sent her a look that said '_I'm fine, go find what we came for,'_ as if that wasn't sign enough, he waved her off and continued fighting. Not about to complain about not having to get anymore beat up, Willow hurried through the warehouse, searching for the girls they were trying to save. As she expected, when she finally found them, four of them were dead and the other four were utterly devoid of any other emotion besides terror. Willow quickly went to work untying them and she tried to talk to the one who seemed the least out of it.

"It's alright, we'll get you out of here, you guys will be alright," Willow assured her. The girl's gaze took in her savior with an eerie calm only achieved by having the wits scared out of you so badly that nothing was really left at the moment. A brunette girl next to them suddenly burst into uncontrollable tears, and the other two clutched at each other, fright and relief etched onto their faces. The brunette glanced at Willow as she undid her binds.

"They-they . . . _raped_ them. . ." the brunette muttered between sobs and Willow felt bad for them. That had to be a truly horrifying experience. All these girls would be emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives. It wasn't fair. Holding back her own tears, Willow nodded and mumbled meaningless words of reassurance. As she finished untying the last girl, they all huddled together, finding comfort in the shared space. Wiping at her watery eyes, Willow sighed and was about to go look for Spike before she heard footsteps behind her, fearing for the worst, she spun around, knife clutched in her hand. Upon the realization it was a really beat up Spike standing across the room; Willow tucked the knife into the pocket of her jacket and hurried over towards him.

"Spike are you alright?" She asked him, genuinely worried. As if he could sense that, he saved his sarcasm for a later time.

"Yeah, I've handled worse; you get all the girls out ok?" He asked before suddenly sniffing. His eyes flashed golden and Willow was too fascinated to worry about why. Before she had a chance to stop him, he reached out suddenly and took one of her hands into his.

"You're bleeding. . ." he stated, and to Willow's surprise, she was. She hadn't even noticed. It must have been when she caught the knife he had thrown at her. She stared down at her palm and nearly gasped at the amount of blood that had accumulated on her palm, wrist and forearm. She had a pretty gnarly cut across her palm from catching the blade of the knife. She gulped as she glanced up and Spike was obviously losing to his demon. His eyes blazed a bright, golden yellow and his features were somewhere between humanesque and demon. His fangs were clearly noticeable and finally after a bit of struggling against it, Spike's demon came to the forefront, winning whatever struggle had happened internally.

Willow was too shocked to do anything other than stare as his mouth descended onto her palm and started suckling at the wound. It was a bizarre, yet slightly pleasurable experience. It sort of felt like what she experienced while using magic, just to a lesser degree. After only drinking what was from where she had sliced her hand, he moved his mouth up to bite down on her wrist, hard. She yelped in pain and yanked her hand back as he wheeled backwards, clutching his skull. He yelled out in agony as electricity spread all through his brain from the chip in his squishy lobes. Willow cradled her wrist against her chest and gaped at him in shock. He hadn't ever done _that_ before.

As he recovered from the searing pain in his head, he was just as shocked by what he did to her. Drinking blood like that was normally a personal and almost sexual event. He'd just been so overcome by the scent of her blood. Normally he could control himself, being all fangy and 'grr' was just always so obvious, he liked to play it low-key. He hadn't even considered tasting her since that time in her dorm two years ago. Spike inwardly flinched just thinking back to two years ago, when he'd gotten his chip. If he'd never gotten that damn chip in his skull, the Slayer and all her stupid friends would be dead. Well . . . as he gazed at the witch, he decided that wasn't entirely true. Literally speaking she would be dead, but not the rotting in the ground kind. He had planned to turn her that night, but the sodding chip ruined that plan.

Willow was in shock. Maybe it was from the generous loss of blood, or maybe it was how she wasn't utterly repulsed by what had just happened. She was surprised sure, but she wasn't totally grossing out, which was odd to say the least. Spike was still staring at her as if she was a nummy treat.

"Did you just – "she started, but she didn't even finish her sentence and Spike was already making a hasty exit through a side door she hadn't noticed until now. _Well that was weird_, was about the only thought that could sum up how she felt. She probably would have stood there all night, staring dumbstruck at the door Spike had bolted through if it weren't for one of the girls' voices reaching her through the haze that was beginning to settle over her. Shaking it off, she turned towards the girls and told them she would take them to the police station to have everything sorted out. On the way there, Willow informed the girls to say nothing about their attackers, only that there were four other dead bodies left in the warehouse. Willow waited until the girls were taken to a different room before she spoke to the officer she had developed a sort of friendship with.

"Hey. This is a uh . . . special case, if you catch my drift. Be careful who you send, I think we got them all, but there may be one or two hiding out." Willow told the cop, Richard. He was one of those officers who always had a crisp, unwrinkled uniform and seemed to have too much of a liking for coffee. Richard had a constant buzz about him and he nodded as Willow explained the situation further.

"Yeah, yeah, go during the day, etc., I get the drill, I have been doing this for a while you know," he replied as he sipped at his coffee inside his mug that proclaimed 'Chicks Dig Tasers,' Willow wasn't about to explain to him how weird that sounded. Maybe she was spending too much time around demons and certain blonde vampires, but it sounded like he was practicing his Taser on chicks. Shaking her head, Willow told him goodnight and started home, well to Buffy's home to be exact. When she passed Willie's pub, she found herself drawn inside. She was going to make good on her promise. Ignoring the weird looks she received, Willow pulled out a wad of cash and ordered a bottle of scotch. Willie was about to bug her about seeing her ID, but after seeing the murderous look on her face, he decided against it.

She sighed as she entered the cemetery. _I hope this doesn't make things awkward,_ she thought as she neared his crypt. She would never have even thought about knocking and going inside, but as she set the bottle down outside his crypt, she knew he could tell she was there. It was that weird vampire thing. She turned around and walked away. When she had gone about a dozen feet, she glanced back and the bottle was gone and the door closed with a thud. This was really going to complicate everything. It shouldn't because it wasn't that big of a deal, the problem was that Willow couldn't seem to find the right amount of outrage at him. In fact, she didn't have any towards him.

Spike had watched her walk away and he couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen now. No doubt she'd just run to her Buffy and he would end up getting his ass royally kicked. Shaking his head at the horrible heartache that stupid blonde's name brought up, he opened his bottle of scotch Willow had kept her word on and downed a huge gulp. He settled into his chair and turned on the TV, drowning his sorrows with the scotch and keeping his mind occupied by whatever mindless show happened to be on. He'd have to go out later, he had something to do, but he just wanted to wallow in self-pity for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was setting and Willow stared blankly out the curtained window in her room across the hall from Buffy's. She was twitchy and had been since what happened those few nights ago. She hadn't seen Spike since he . . . drank from her. Although when she woke up the next morning, she had found a note stuck to her window. It was a thank-you note from Spike. She presumed it was for the booze, but he hadn't specified or tried to contact her since. Willow figured he felt ashamed, she wasn't Buffy. Why would he want her? He hadn't even made a cameo since then. Dawn kept pestering everybody about it, but none of them seemed to mind. Xander was overjoyed that "Dead Boy Jr." hadn't made an appearance in a few days. Buffy had returned home from LA that morning, looking happy, but with that undercurrent of sadness that only Angel seemed to be able to bring up in her.

"Helloo? Earth to Willow! Come downstairs! Buffy brought some yummy pizza! My half has anchovies!" Dawn poked her head in Willow's room and nearly gave the spacey witch a heart attack. As she came out of her internal rabble, she realized the sun's position was closer to setting than it had been what felt like seconds earlier. She nervously kneaded her hands together and stood to follow the hyperactive teen down the stairs. Her heart fluttered anxiously, dreading when the sun would set. She knew Spike would show up tonight, he could sense Buffy from a mile away. No matter how much she denied him, he'd keep persistent. _Poor fool._

Rubbing her temples from the magic withdraw headache that had started up with a vengeance an hour earlier, Willow made her way down the stairs and into the living room. Everybody was buzzing around with plates, soda, and pizza. Giles and his new girlfriend even showed up. Xander and Anya had claimed the space on the floor around a game board, along with Dawn and Buffy. They were playing Clue. Willow figured Anya had picked the game tonight. It was a usual Friday night. Since Buffy had come back and recovered, she wanted to have one night of complete normalcy for Dawnie. It was a much needed night for everybody though.

"Willster! I saved you some pizza before the pizza monster came and ate it all," Xander said with a grin as he gestured towards Dawn. She stuck her tongue out at him and took a huge bite of anchovy pizza, smearing marinara sauce around her mouth. Willow mustered up a weak grin and went into the kitchen to get some Tylenol and a soda. She leaned against the counter for a moment and was surprised when she looked up and found a certain Brit leaning against the wall across from her.

"Spike! You scared me. W-what are you doing here?" She asked him, clearly curious as to why he'd want to come over now of all times, with all of the Scooby Gang converged in Buffy's house for the night. He grinned at his ability to still scare people sometimes and shrugged, walking past her to root through the Summers' fridge.

"It is game night. The lil Bit always bugs me about not showing up, so I figured I'd make an appearance, at least until one of your lot kicks me out." He found the alcohol stash he'd kept in there from when he stayed over more often and opened up a beer. Willow was about to complain about him drinking in front of Dawn, but she figured he'd finish it before going into the other room. She just nodded and started to head out of the kitchen. Spike's firm grip on her arm halted her.

"What? No discussion about how wrong I was to drink from you? No telling me to never mention it again? Or did you actually enjoy it?" Spike asked her with a sick grin plastered on his face. She made a face at him and yanked her hand back, but he made sure she knew it was because he let her.

"Spike, just stop ok? Not now, I'm going in there and we are not talking about this," Willow replied as she walked away from him, glancing back at him as he laughed. He sure knew how to psychologically attack people. Spike finished off his drink and followed the witch into the other room. Buffy immediately tensed up when her Slayer senses picked up on his presence, but Dawn squealed and attacked the vampire with a hug. This drew a roomful of shocked and puzzled looks from everybody, but Dawn paid no attention to them. Spike froze at first, but awkwardly patted the girl as she squeezed him.

"Guess it's a good thing I don't need to breathe, eh, Nibblet?" He teased and she blushed and stepped back. Of course then she started harassing him for not showing up. The poor guy looked a bit overwhelmed, but Dawn had that effect on people. Buffy glared from where she was now leaning against the wall, she had moved there the second Dawn had gotten anywhere near Spike.

"Ok Dawn can we _not_ hug the icky vampire?" Buffy asked with a dramatic sigh. A brief look of hurt passed over Spike's face, and Willow wouldn't have even noticed if she hadn't been paying attention, but it was quickly replaced by a cocky grin. Dawn rolled her eyes and told Spike he wasn't icky.

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><p>Spike lasted about an hour before he said something that ended in him being kicked out. Of course Xander had instigated it, but Spike was still blamed and he left, claiming he "didn't want to be stuck with you wankers anyways." Somehow, Willow found herself discussing magic with Giles' girlfriend, Lilly. As Buffy, Xander, and Anya went to work cleaning up the remnants of game night, her and Lilly talked about their favorite spells and magical ingredients.<p>

"Oh, hell! That reminds me, Willow could you stop by the Magic Box and pick up a few texts I left there? I need them for an item I recently acquired. Quite frankly I don't exactly know what it is." Willow agreed to do so, and he handed her a list and the keys to the store and she was off. It was a mild night in Sunnydale, and her light jacket was fine for the weather, and for stowing away a few stakes within the pockets. She walked briskly, as would any Sunnydale native unlucky enough to be outside at night by themselves. Of course immediately after realizing this, Willow became a bit frightened, which was ridiculous since she had helped kill some demons a few nights ago. Well, _a_ demon, but there was no need to get technical.

Upon seeing the familiar building, Willow heaved a sigh in relief. She just needed to get in, grab the books, and get out, but of course, her life was never that simple. As she nearly jogged across the street to the Magic Box, she tripped on her skirt and tumbled down. It wasn't a bad fall besides the fact that when she caught herself with her hands, the wound from the other night re-opened and spilled blood down her hand again. It was never good to be bleeding at night in Sunnydale. Willow cursed and stood up, hoping she had something in her purse to hold pressure against her gash. Before she could get there, a pale, cold hand stopped her. Willow's heart leapt into her throat and she readied a scream that never came, mostly because a hand went to cover her mouth.

"Now, now, luv, I don't bite . . . well at least not anymore," A distinct British dialect whispered in her ear. Spike. Of course it was Spike; he conveniently seemed to always show up when Willow was bleeding. Satisfied she wasn't going to try to scream anymore, Spike removed his hand from her mouth, but didn't loosen his grip on her arm. She sighed dramatically. What did he want now?

"Spike, what do you want? Can't you see I'm a little busy here?" She asked him impatiently. He raised his scarred eyebrow at her and smirked slightly.

"Busy what? Bleeding all over yourself and attracting any vampire lucky enough to get close enough to catch a whiff?" He asked while trying to ignore the overwhelming urge to lap up the crimson blood staining her hand. He had almost been able to forget the call her blood had. It was the same with all witches. Their blood was addictive and intoxicating and left vampires practically begging for more. It was like a drug. Drusilla used to say that the blood of a witch sang in her veins, and it was actually pretty accurate. The raw, unfiltered power lasted for at least a day.

All these thoughts flowed through his head in only mere seconds, and Willow flinched as his grip tightened even more around her arm as he fought against his demon once more. _Bloody hell, I can't let her hold so much above my head, if I give in, she'll have all the damn power_. The small voice in his head was quickly drowned out by his demon roaring inside his cranium, screaming all sorts of nasty things he needed to do to her. With a bloodthirsty yell, his eyes glowed bright yellow and he sank his teeth into the flesh of her palm. Willow gasped, wondering why he could bite her, it didn't make sense. Spike felt a dull, throbbing pain in his brain, but other than that, there was no searing inside his skull. He nearly groaned in pleasure as her warm blood traveled down his throat, sending fire through his dead veins.

It didn't take long before Willow started becoming dizzy. An icy feeling spread up her arm from where Spike was biting her. She didn't understand why his chip wasn't going off. Had he gotten it taken out somehow? Did it break? Did her excessive use of darker magics alter her very being? She was freaking out, but it also felt kinda nice. She felt needed. He needed her at this particular moment. Her mind was starting to cloud and she was ready to pass out. Spike's strong arms wrapped around her as she slumped forward and he kept her from tumbling to the ground and risking detaching his mouth from her palm. Her limp body brought out his predator instinct even more, but he knew he needed to stop. If he killed her, he'd be dust. Buffy would make sure of _that_.

His demon growled in irritation at being cut off from the life force flowing into him, but even it had survival instincts. Spike glanced down at the barely conscious red head in his arms and she had enough will to glare at him before closing her eyes. Sighing because now he would have to figure out what to do with her, he grabbed the list and keys to the Magic Box. Might as well see what she came for.

It took quite a bit of maneuvering in order to balance the nearly unconscious witch and unlock the door, but once he stepped inside, he set her down in a chair by the table they did all their research on. She was extremely pale, but she would live. She sighed lightly and kept her eyes shut tight, trying to ignore the dizziness that was fogging her mind. After a few moments, she could feel Spike's presence next to her. It was that strange prickling sensation one feels when they know they are being watched.

"I'm not going to die, no thanks to you of course. Why the hell did you do that! How can you bite me? Did you get the chip taken out? Oh my goddess, this has just been an act the whole time, you planned all of this! I bet you never actually had a chip!" The lack of blood flow probably accounted for her not so accurate hypothesis, considering the Initiative admitted to placing a chip in his head. Spike chuckled at her, quite used to her rambling by now. He had known her for years now; it was only likely he'd pick up a few things here and there about her.

"Honestly, Red, I'm just as clueless as you are . . . well okay, not _that_ clueless, but I don't know what's going on with this piece of junk, I know it works, I was thinking about hitting Xander earlier and the chip kicked in just fine." Willow rubbed her temples, her headache even worse than before. Her heart was thumping rapidly to make up for her lost blood, and she could feel it beating all the way in her skull. She purposely ignored Spike's clueless comment and he shrugged, heading off to find what Willow needed for Giles. It was all for selfish reasons though; he was just nosy and wanted to know what Giles was up to. He didn't trust that geezer. While trying to pull out the books Giles wanted, he knocked over some stuff and made a hell of a ruckus.

"Jeez! You must be the clumsiest vampire in existence; could you make any more noise?" She asked him as she slowly got to her feet, placing a hand on the back of her chair when a wave of dizziness came over her. As she glanced down briefly at her hand, she dully noted it had slowed its bleeding for the most part. _Yeah, because stupid Spike sucked it all out_. She thought as she slowly opened her eyes to normal. The sound of things crashing to the ground reverberated in the room, followed by a string of creative British curse words. What she saw made her giggle despite herself. Spike was precariously holding up a large stack of various mystical objects to keep them from falling to the ground, had his knee against the shelf to keep the whole thing from falling over, and a scowl settled on his face. This scowl intensified as Willow laughed at him.

"Ok, Sabrina, how about you quit laughing at me and bloody help out over here," he told her, feeling clever that he could throw in a pop culture reference that wasn't from the 70's and 80's. Willow rolled her eyes and stepped forward to help, a bit wobbly on her feet. She leaned against the shelf and put both hands on the stacks that Spike was holding up. He moved his hands and went about to making sure nothing was going to fall. He yanked out the books he needed and stepped back, nodding to Willow that she could let go of the stuff she had been holding up. As he took another step back he tripped on something he hadn't seen. A loud clank echoed in the small room as the back of his boot connected with something metallic and he feel back right on his bum.

"What the hell! What's that?" He grumbled as he got to his feet. Willow was too captivated by the strange thing he had fallen over to laugh at him. It was a black cauldron type thing, with chains wrapped around it and locks placed on it. It was covered in sticks and bones and what appeared to be blood. As if to prove her point, Spike sniffed and affirmed that it was blood. Human to boot. "What is it?" He asked again as Willow bent down to examine it. Attached to it was a key and a quickly scrawled note. Willow grabbed the key and Spike picked up the note.

"Do not open under any circumstances, "he read off the card and snorted at it, "hmmm, wanna open it, Red?" He asked her and wiggled his brows at her. It was magickal in origin, so he knew that her interest was already peaked. Honestly, he figured it would be something cool and exciting. Willow was contemplating opening it. She knew if she blatantly ignored the note, Giles would be mad at her, but this strange container was calling out to her, practically begging her to open it. Before she realized she had moved, the chains fell off of it and her hands were reaching to pull off the lid. Spike was staring at it, captivated and horribly impatient. Whatever was inside this container was powerful; he could practically feel the energy coming off in waves. After fumbling with it for a few moments, Willow got the lid off. Nothing happened.

"Well that was anti-climactic," Spike commented, a bit disappointed. Willow was merely puzzled. She had felt something! She stuck her head over it to peer inside of it. Suddenly, as if hit with an unseen force, Willow flew back and hit into the table across the room. Items in the store flew off the shelves they'd been sitting on, and a high-pitched noise screeched though the room, only ending once Willow's body sank to the ground. She was knocked unconscious. All Spike could do was stare. It completely caught him off guard. He rushed across the room to make sure the witch was still alive. Something extremely strange had just happened, and he had no idea what to do about it.

"Bloody hell, that was quite a blast you got there, Red," he muttered as he once again found himself with her unable to walk. He couldn't bring her back to the Scoobies in this condition. Leaving what they had pulled out for Giles, he hefted her into his arms and decided to take her to his crypt until she woke up, then he'd kick her out and make her leave. They were spending entirely too much time around each other, and each time he ended up drinking her blood. She'd be anemic by the end of the week. While he carried her unconscious body, something awakened within her. Spike was obviously unaware, but something dark and deadly was making its home in the witch in his arms. It was a power that had been dormant so long, the majority of creatures still living had forgotten about it, especially the humans. Giles' little delivery was at the core of the problems that were guaranteed to develop. Oblivious to exactly what role he was going to play in this, Spike hummed a song by The Clash under his breathe and kept on walking.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thanks for reading! All will be explained soon enough, so bear with me! I feel like I threw in a lot of hints in this chapter, so you can probably guess whats up with Willow by the end of this chapter. Also, this is probably the longest I've gone without Spike catching on fire in a fic. That is a major feat!

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><p>A small sigh escaped Willow's lips as she burrowed herself into the covers. She was at the point where she wasn't exactly asleep, but wasn't even close to being awake and aware. She felt funny, which might be why she slowly drifted towards consciousness. The feeling was indescribable, but even in the state before alertness; she knew something had to be up. When she flipped over in the sheets, her legs became tangled in them and that was what really drove her to decide to go ahead and wake up fully. She huffed in annoyance as she tried to kick the sheets off. Of course by now she realized that the last place she'd been awake, she wasn't anywhere near a bed. Panic ensued and she thrashed around until she was off of the bed, and she nearly fell to the ground in a heap of blankets. She was still wearing what she had been the night before, that she was sure of, but the last thing she remembered was helping Spike prevent an avalanche in the Magic Box. <em>Spike! Of course! He must know what happened between then and now . . . especially since I just woke up in his crypt.<em>

That thought sent uncomfortable shivers down her spine. Spike himself had once mentioned that drinking blood could wind up being a highly sexual event, and for some vampires led to other . . . activities afterwards. The uneasiness she felt at that thought was more of because she hadn't remembered it, and because she was gay. Well, maybe. Willow was rather confused about her orientation now. She shivered when the sound of a deep chuckle reached her ears. She whirled around to see Spike rumpled like he'd just woken up. He was across the room, on the floor with a pillow and a blanket pulled over most of him. Only a small amount of his bare chest was visible, but it was enough to start up a blush in the witch's cheeks. He grinned at her, obviously aware of her confusion and discomfort.

"How'd you sleep, luv?" He asked her, sitting up and revealing the rest of his chest. She turned away and busied herself making the bed so she could avoid looking at him. She heard him getting up and couldn't help but cringe, but she heard the sound of clothing being slipped on and when she turned back around he had a shirt on, and was fully dressed. He tilted his head at her as she stared at him, wide eyed like a deer caught in the glare of headlights, and then she realized she hadn't answered his question.

"Um, f-fine. I don't exactly remember what happened . . . did we, you know?" She turned crimson as she stammered out her response. She couldn't help but flinch as Spike literally doubled over laughing. Willow glared at him until he stopped and looked back up at her.

"No we didn't shag, ducks, you were unconscious and that's not my style, now that bloody poof Angel on the other hand – "

He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence because Willow rolled her eyes and cut him off. She really didn't want to hear about fun times with Angelus at the moment. "Ok, so what happened?"

Spike furrowed his brows slightly and did another one of his signature head tilts. "You really don't remember do you? Well here's what happened in a nutshell, you were being a pain and distracting me, so I fell over some freaky witchy cauldron and then you opened it and something made you fly across the room and slam into the table, then I carried you here, and was a gentleman and slept on the floor. That leaves us here." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, searching the witch's face for a reaction.

She must have hit her head pretty hard because Willow couldn't remember a thing. Her face must've shown how clueless she was about what happened because Spike chuckled lightly at her. He ran a hand through his bleached hair and asked, "Well you must've hit your noggin harder than I thought, eh? I'm certain that old fart Rupert won't be pleased about the state of his shop," Spike commented with a grin. His voice always had a sneering quality whenever he said any variation of Giles' name. Willow couldn't figure out why the two Brits hated each other so much. The mention of his name brought everything back about what she had been doing there in the first place.

"Oh! Giles! I forgot to bring him his books! Crap!" Willow looked around almost frantically for her bag. Whenever she forgot to do something the Scooby Gang always figured something was up, and she honestly couldn't have them all snooping around with what she's been up to. Giles had already yelled at her once for using black magic too much, but if he knew what was going on with Spike now, he'd be dusted and then Willow would feel bad. _What is this thing with Spike now? It's like at times we are on friendly terms, like now, but then he'll go and bite me and make me think very not-gay thoughts._ Willow shook her head, refusing to think about it. She was way too baffled. After gathering all her stuff, she turned around to look at Spike, where he hadn't moved from where he'd been leaning. As if unconsciously, she made a move to give him a hug, but he held up both his hands, indicating that was a bad move on her part.

"Whoa, Red. Hold it down; you don't want a repeat of last night do you?" He sighed when she looked at him wide-eyed because of that comment. "Biting you? Jeez, don't get your knickers in a bunch. Now sod off; I've got stuff to do." He motioned for her to head to the upstairs part of his crypt and he followed suit. He was hungry and it was making him grumpy. Not like his damn animal blood did much to satisfy his craving . . . it wasn't like witch's blood. Willow paused at the exit to his crypt, watching him as he went to vamp face while drinking some blood. She couldn't image why he was still hungry, it felt like he was about to drain her dry yesterday night.

"Thanks, Spike," was all she said as she left, but she felt like it was probably enough. Her back was to him as he nearly choked on the blood he was drinking. Nobody ever told him thank you. It didn't matter what he did, nobody thanked him. Ever. He shook his head and couldn't keep a small smile off of his face. The slamming of the crypt door brought him back to reality and he sighed. He liked his alone time, but he enjoyed Red's company most of the time. The way she rambled reminded him of Drusilla, a sane, human version though. Placing his blood back in his fridge, he walked across the room to turn on his TV and wait for the sun to set. He didn't forget his trusty vodka though. His feelings were still hurt by Buffy continuing to blatantly reject him. The things she said about him . . . they hurt. Growling because of his temporary weakness, he gulped back a huge swig of his drink and settled into his chair to watch Passions.

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><p>It was just past nine o 'clock when the bells on the door to the Magic Box jangled and everybody inside turned their heads to watch the redhead scurry inside. Anya was back behind the cash register, counting her money before the start of the business day, Xander and Buffy were enjoying a box of donuts and some coffee, and Giles was casually sipping tea and examining the cauldron Willow had tripped on earlier. <em>Oh crap! We opened it! Giles is gonna be pissed!<em> She thought as she grinned broadly at everybody in the room and called out a greeting. She settled into a chair and Xander handed her a coffee. She raised her eyebrow at him.

"It's decaf, I swear. We know how much of a spaz caffeine makes you," Xander said with a grin. He was dressed in his construction clothes since his shift started in an hour. Willow stuck her tongue out at him, but thanked him for the coffee. "Hey, what can I say, I'm the money man around here," Xander commented and both Buffy and Willow looked sheepish for their lack of jobs. Giles ignored them for the moment; he was busy being appalled by what ended up in his shop. This cauldron just looked evil, and he hadn't even received the books from Willow.

"Willow, are you alright? You never brought by my books," Giles was concerned. Willow was always the level-headed one, but lately she was lacking in that capacity. Willow was busy taking furtive glances at the cauldron, relieved to see that the chains were wrapped back around it and it was locked up. She had Spike to thank for that. He was really nice when he put his mind to it. She'd have to start going out of her way to be nice to him too. _It has nothing to do with how hot you think he is right? _Willow's inner voice asked her and she nearly blushed in the middle of the shop. Not only because of how she finds Spike attractive, but also because that thought came with a plethora of not so tame ones. She was so not feeling like herself today.

"Oh! Well you see, I had them all picked out, but I thought I heard something rooting around in the alley and had a case of cowardice and ran away, but here's your books," She explained as she picked up the large, heavy stack of them and plopped them down in front of him. She figured her excuse sounded legit.

"Want me to do a sweep around here tonight, Giles? That might explain why the shop was so disorganized this morning. Maybe something broke in?" Buffy asked, concerned for her friend and the possibility that some demon-y types were loitering outside the Magic Box. "Maybe you need a 'no loitering' sign or something."

Anya looked appalled. "No! Those scare away customers! It makes us seem unfriendly, and I very much want their money." Xander rolled his eyes at his now capitalistic girlfriend.

"Well Anya it's nice to see where _your_ priorities are. Buffy, a patrol around this block would be an acceptable addition to your nightly graveyard patrols. And thank you, Willow, although I had planned to try to schlep through some of this last night, but that's alright. Now I can have Anya work on her customer service abilities." Giles said with a light smile. Willow nodded and gathered up her bag, and as she walked out the door she called out that she was going to class. The last bits of conversation were of an offended sounding Anya asking what was wrong with how she treated the customers. Still feeling unlike herself, Willow wandered down the sidewalk on the way to her killer organic chemistry class. It was going to be a long day.

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><p>It had been a long day. Spike had run out of alcohol about two hours ago and let out his aggression on his crypt. It was a disaster zone at the moment. His chair was over-turned and had stuffing ripped out the side of it, broken glass littered the floor from empty liquor bottles, and then he even found his old Buffy shrine and finished destroying it. He only felt marginally better, and even that faded when he realized he would have to clean it all back up again. "I'll just wait til I nab some more booze, then I might feel up to it, or passing out on the sodding floor," Spike grumbled to himself as he went downstairs to find his leather duster. The sun was to set in less than ten minutes, and he needed to head over to Willy's and pilfer some of the good stuff, or if he was feeling nice, he might pay for it.<p>

Once the sun set, he was on his way out his crypt door and down to the bar. Spike was even considering a game or two of kitten poker. Why couldn't he ever fall for someone who felt the same towards him? Cecily, Dru, and now the bloody Slayer? What the hell! It's like he enjoyed torturing himself with these gut-wrenching, mind-stealing, one-sided lovers.

"Dammit!" He yelled and kicked out at a nearby streetlamp. It screeched from the force of his kick and for a moment he thought it was going to fall. When he figured it wasn't, he turned his back on it and walked to the bar, now with a slight limp in his sore foot. A god awful racket soon followed and he sighed in irritation as the lamppost fell onto a nearby car. He covered his ears with his hands as the car alarm began to go off. As the owner of said car rushed out of the store he'd been in, Spike stealthy crept away, while the owner screamed a long list of interesting profanities.

Smiling to himself, Spike pushed open the doors to the bar and headed straight towards a barstool. He ignored the angry glares and murmurs about his traitorous nature. They couldn't pull anything here, and knew if they did that he would gladly beat them to a bloody pulp. The vampire sighed in contentment as he guzzled down a beer, and it wasn't the cheap, nasty stuff. Willy may be a little nancy-boy, but he sure knew where to find the best.

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><p>Willow's feelings of unease were finally at a peak. She just felt so completely off. It was like coming down from a magick high. There was some part of her that was practically screaming out in frustration. She felt so pent up. She had to be the perfect academic student, the wonderful best friend, the helpful book and computer girl for Giles, and Buffy's little Slayerette sidekick, oh and not to mention not allowing the magick to overrun her life. She was the dependable Scooby, Old Reliable, and she was sick of it. Smiling unnaturally wickedly, she rose from her floor that was littered with books, and she went towards her closet. It took a full sweep of it, but she finally found the pants and boots she'd worn when she had to pretend to be her evil vampire self. She'd lost the shirt a while ago, but she easily found a plain black tank top.<p>

Dressing quickly, Willow then exited Buffy's empty house and walked down the street, intent on trying out one of the new dives in town. Buffy always said it was the low class version of The Bronze, which was continuing to be quite a trendy spot. Where she was headed was more of a spot that Spike would possibly turn his nose up at. It was rave central, and magickal to boot. She'd heard a few dark arts groupies talking about it at The Magic Box the week before. Apparently some warlock guy sometimes shows up, even though he usually remains in his cloaked place somewhere in the bad side of Sunnydale. Willow had heard all sorts of tales about him. He intoxicated witches with powers that she couldn't even fathom.

As she hurried past one of the demon bars in town, she didn't catch the leather clad man being tossed out until it was too late. Her eyes picked up on movement to her left and before she could react, an extremely pissed off and drunk British vampire crashed into her and knocked them both to the ground.

"Watch where you're going, you bint!" He yelled at her, his words slurred. Willow smiled slowly at Spike. Her inhibitions were practically gone as it was, so she had no filter to her thoughts she usually kept locked up. She'd always found Spike attractive, you'd have to be blind not to. Sure he used to be horribly terrifying, and now he was sometimes a jerk, but that didn't stop her tonight. Heaving the wasted Spike to his feet, she shoved him roughly against the wall and used magick to pin him there. He struggled for a bit before actually realizing who actually had him pinned in the alley.

"Red? What the hell are you doing?" He asked her, bewilderment evident in his tone. She was not acting like herself, and the outfit she had on was something Buffy wouldn't have even left the house in, and that was saying something. Spike certainly wasn't complaining. The leather pants were doing wonders for her figure, and he wondered why he'd never noticed how attractive she was. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but he suddenly found the witch even more fascinating than usual. Deep down he knew something had to be wrong with her, but with her body pressed up against his, he couldn't exactly form any sort of protest.

She grinned at him lazily, like a predator that knew its prey wouldn't be escaping anytime soon. In this case, it didn't want to. Spike was about to say something else, trying to maintain his gentlemanly actions towards Willow, but she stuck a finger on his lips, an order for him to hush. He complied. When she pressed her lips against his, he didn't notice the strange flickering going on in her irises. It was like there was a fight for dominance going on inside the witch's body, and one side was obviously beating down the meeker side of Willow. He completely forgot his train of thought as their kiss deepened and lost the tame quality it had just moments before. Willow unpinned him, and he took advantage and flipped her around, pressing her back against the brick wall. Soon enough, Spike couldn't contain himself and his demon was starting its own fight for dominance. His eyes flashed between blue and yellow and he was ready to bite into her exposed neck. Finally giving in, his face transformed into that of his demonic side and he snarled, detaching himself from the kiss, and bit her. It ended up in a non-lethal part of her upper arm. He chose it because of the easy access and so as to not kill her. When he tasted her blood, it wasn't right. It tasted different than usual, and he wasn't having _any_ pain in his skull at all. Her blood was tainted with the taste of pure . . . evil. With a puzzled expression on his face, he pulled back, making his face normal again.

He stared down at the redhead who still looked ready to jump him and he couldn't help but ask, "What is wrong with you, pet?" Willow was the least likely to turn evil in his opinion and it was just bizarre for it to happen so quickly. "Look, let's just get you somewhere else; you can stay at my crypt as long as you promise to behave." She smiled up at him, feigning innocence. She had no intentions of behaving, but he didn't need to know that. Once it got to the vampire, it would have to fool her friends and lay dormant so they wouldn't expect anything being amiss. After that, it would gain access to the dark arts books locked up somewhere in The Magic Box and Giles' place, then show the idiot humans just what it was capable of. With a content sigh, Willow's arm linked through his and they slowly wandered towards Spike's crypt. They were both intoxicated, him on booze and her on power.

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><p>Buffy passed the two during her nightly patrols, but she thought nothing of it and had no idea it was them. She could tell when her friends were around, almost like her Slayer senses could detect those she considered close to her. She only caught a brief glimpse, but the way they were clinging onto each other, it made Buffy even blush that they were doing that in public.<p>

"I swear, some of the people in this town are _so_ trashy," she said with a sigh and a shake of her head.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Wow look it's the update that took me forever. Whoops.

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><p>It took over an hour for a piss drunk Spike and a horny Willow to arrive at his crypt. Every few feet Spike would have to pull her off of him while she groped him and tried to kiss him. Normally he'd welcome it, but he knew the witch wasn't herself, and he wasn't going to take advantage of her. He was evil, but not desperate. Finally he saw his crypt in the distance and he only hoped that Buffy wasn't patrolling through his cemetery at this particular time. Suddenly, he felt the presence of a small group of vampires. Trying to shove Willow off of him, he spun around towards where the prickling sensation on the back of his neck was coming from. Standing only a few feet away were four vampires poised for pouncing on them, grins plastered on their faces, yellow eyes blazing, and forehead bunched up. Sighing, Spike shoved Willow hard enough for her to land bum first on the wet grass, but this disturbed his balance and opened him up for attack. Willow glared indigently from where she'd been shoved, but settled for crossing her arms over her chest. She wasn't frightened in the least. If the attractive vampire couldn't handle the others of his kind, she could use her magic against them. She watched impassively as the drunken Spike flew past her before landing on and breaking a tombstone.<p>

Spike wasn't quite so impassive. Cursing wildly, he clumsily got to his feet, where the other vampires were waiting to grab him. One of them shoved him against a nearby mausoleum, and his head swam as it connected against the hard stone with a loud thud. Before they could get their hands on his neck to break it, he was able to pull out his stake and plunged it into the surprised vampire's heart. It dissolved into dust, much to the anger of the other vampires after him. Again he was tossed across the cemetery, traveling about a dozen feet before landing next to a now impatient witch. Sighing, she rose to her feet, mumbling words underneath her breath while she stared at her feet. The vampires were amused.

"Ha! Look at the girl, thinking she can protect herself," One of them said, chuckling. He obviously had no understanding of the kind of power Willow could wield. With the final word ending in a shout, the witch looked up, her eyes black and devoid of any emotion. The vampires looked confused for a moment until Willow lifted both of her arms and gestured towards them. An enormous fire engulfed them all; it was large enough that even from his place behind Willow Spike scooted back uncomfortably. The screams only lasted a second before all that was left was ashes. Spike stared, wide-eyed; he was shocked by the power emanating from her. He always knew she was powerful, but this sorta mojo? Something was definitely up; even his sluggish mind from the alcohol was able to recognize that, he just hoped that he remembered in the morning. He had been on a black out binge, but being kicked out of the bar may have prevented that. He sure hoped so.

Willow's eyes were still black when she stared down at the very puzzled-looking Spike. He could hardly hold back a cringe. What he saw there could compete with Angelus in evilness. As quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, leaving a slightly more like herself Willow. She glanced down at her outfit and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to cover the amount of skin she had showing. What in the world was she wearing!? She looked like a total slut. It looked like she just raided Faith's closet. Confusion settled over her, she couldn't remember the last two hours at all. The last thing she completely recalled was heading into her room to study. Now she was somehow dressed like a total skanko in the middle of a cemetery and surrounded by little piles of ashes. Shaking her head, she looked at Spike questioningly, wondering why it felt like she just did a magic atomic bomb. It felt exactly like after she'd teleported Glory that one time. As if the memory caused her symptoms, Willow was suddenly struck with one of the worst headaches she'd ever had, and her nose started bleeding, running down her face and onto her lips. She sank down in the grass next to Spike, clutching her head.

"Spike . . . what happened? How, how did I wind up here? I'm all confused," she said as tears stung in her eyes. God, she felt awful. A nice warm bed and some Tylenol sounded wonderful at the moment, but she needed to take Spike over to Giles and get him patched up. Willow had no idea how he became injured, but it had him wincing in pain from even the slightest movement, and Spike tried to cover up when he was injured. At her question, he glanced at her, uncertainty burning in his eyes. The night's events would have even the ol' Watcher bunching up his eyebrows in puzzlement. Spike had a glimmer of an idea about what caused it, but wasn't presumptuous enough to trust his judgment.

"Listen Red, we can talk this out in detail later, but I need to go patch myself up first," Spike attempted to scramble to his feet, but with a pained hiss, he fell back onto the ground. He grimaced and clutched his side, he could tell a couple of ribs were broken and it would take time and blood for them to heal and thread themselves back together. Willow stared at him with sympathy. They were both pitiful at the moment. She held her hand out to him and even though he glared, she helped him to his feet and placed his arm over her shoulder so she could help him walk to Giles' apartment.

"I didn't need any help," Spike stated, sounding like a petulant child. Willow rolled her eyes, but she said nothing. It was a long while before they were on the same street as where The Watcher lived. Before they were even halfway down the road, both heard the sound of feet slapping on the pavement, and quickly glanced behind them. They both breathed a sigh of relief (which made Spike mutter in pain) when they recognized bright blonde hair. Willow stopped, and was suddenly glad Spike had offered her his duster earlier in their walk. Willow felt way too exposed in her current outfit. She honestly wanted to just go home and cover every inch of her body.

"Willow! What happened? Are you alright?" Buffy asked in a rush when she caught up to them. She completely ignored Spike's injuries, which brought about a quick feeling of anger in Willow, but she pushed it down and away. Besides a cut on her forehead and a few bruises on her arms, Buffy looked fine. She was more concerned about Willow. Her friend had dried blood smeared on her face, and looked about half dead.

"Yeah, I think so, Spike got attacked by vampires and uh beat them off I think," Willow stated, unsure of her response since she didn't remember any of it. Buffy finally turned her attention to Spike, and gasped at how bad his injuries were. She was about to ask if they were super vamps, until she smelled the distinct odor of booze on his breath.

"You're drunk!? No wonder you got beat up! You're lucky you didn't get Willow killed! Oh I soo wanna stake you right now," The Slayer glared at him, threateningly waving her stake at him. He just shot her a withering look until Willow sighed loud enough to get both of their attention.

"Look guys, can you please quit it? I'm tired and just want to figure out what is going on." Willow said with irritation evident in her tone. Buffy nodded and took Spike's other side so they could reach Giles' place faster, but she made sure she glared at him first. He returned the look. Willow was unaware of the silent communication of hatred; she was too busy focusing on not passing out in the road. She didn't even know why she was so tired, usually she only felt this way after a particularly powerful spell, and the only time she'd gotten a nosebleed was when she'd teleported Glory. Tonight was just baffling. She wasn't even going to try to explain what happened, she'd just get cleaned up and ask Giles about memory loss. She'd completely lost at least a few hours of time.


	5. Chapter 5

_ ((A/N: I'm trying to work on updating my stories faster, so sorry for leaving this story hanging for so long)) _

Once Giles lectured her about magic, he promised to look up mystical memory loss. He left to go find a few volumes he had at the store, and he didn't even bother asking Willow to do it. If she was having memory loss, it was probably best not to send her out on her own. Buffy offered to take Willow home, but the witch was oddly reluctant. Spike had immediately raided the first aid box in the Watcher's house and was currently trying to dress his wounds by himself, and it was obvious it wasn't working out well. Willow glanced at him before refusing Buffy's offer to be walked home. "I'll be fine Buffy, there's a few of Giles' books he has here that I'd like to look at," she told her friend, slightly worried the lie came so easily. Spike lifted an eyebrow at her, but didn't point it out.

"Will you be alright here with him?" She asked, pointing at Spike with a skeptical look on her face. Something was going on between these two, but Buffy couldn't put her finger on it.

"Well it's not like he can hurt me," Willow lied again. For some reason the past few times she'd been around Spike, he'd been able to bite her with only minimal pain. It was weird, but she didn't want to worry Buffy. The Slayer nodded and made Willow promise she'd fill her in in the morning. With a goodbye to Willow and a glare towards Spike, Buffy left to go finish her patrol before heading to bed.

When the door closed, Spike chuckled lightly despite the pain it caused. "Lyin' to your friends now, Red? 's not like you. Although I gotta say, kinda goes with the theme for tonight," he commented, tearing off some bandages from a roll using his teeth. Willow strode over to where he sat on the couch and yanked the bandages away from him. He started to protest until she started ripping strips off to dress his wounds with.

"It would help if I actually remembered tonight. Last thing I remember was studying back in my dorm room and then I'm suddenly in the cemetery with you surrounded by dusted vampires. What's up with all this weird stuff happening only when you are around? I'm starting to think you're causing all this," she accused as she started bandaging a cut on his leg. "Wait here, and don't move," she ordered before walking into the kitchen to heat up some blood for Spike. "Oi! Don't forget the Weetabix! Ol' Rupert says he's out, but he's a liar, I found it hidden behind a box of Raisin Bran," he told her, because he hated the taste of animal blood to begin with, and since he still had the taste of her blood burned into his memory, it made it taste all that much worse. Willow simply nodded, ignoring him for the most part as she busied herself making up his blood. Her head was pounding and she felt like passing out. There had been some serious magic mojo going on, but she couldn't remember any of it. She'd do a reveal spell, but she was weak to begin with, and that would only make it worse.

Spike watched her curiously as she walked towards him with the mug of blood in hand. He took it from her and she grabbed a bowl from Giles' kitchen and took it into the bathroom with her to get a wet washrag to clean the blood off Spike's face and clean out the scrapes on his hands. She closed the door softly behind her and took one of Giles' wash clothes and soaked it in warm water. Willow glanced up at her reflection and couldn't help but notice how bad her appearance was. No wonder Buffy had wanted to take her home. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair hung ragged around her face and there was dried blood under her nose and on her lips. She cleaned herself up a bit and then walked back into the living room with a bowl full of warm, soapy water, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide she found under the sink.

Before she entered the living room, she grabbed a washcloth out of Giles' hall closet. Willow wasn't sure why she had the urge to help Spike, but she wasn't going to question it at that particular moment. Giles would likely be gone the rest of the night researching at the Magic Box – he had the tendency to get far too caught up in being buried in old books – so she wouldn't have to face anymore strange looks from him. "About time you showed up. Good thing 'm already dead or I'd have bled out already," he snarked when she approached the couch and kneeled next to him. His mug of blood was empty and sitting on the coffee table.

"You know, I don't _have_ to help you," she remarked with a raised eyebrow even as she gestured for him to remove his shirt. He sighed lightly, but gingerly removed the garment and tossed it onto the coffeetable. This movement caused him to grab at his side and hiss in pain, which was good for Willow considering she was trying to reassemble her features into nonchalance at the sight of his sculpted abs. _He sure is muscular for a dead guy_ she mused and blinked in surprise when Spike turned back towards her. From her spot on the floor, she was about eyelevel with his bare skin and she reached over to dip the washcloth into the water. "Wow you uh sure took a beating, huh?" She asked casually as she washed off the dried blood from where his skin impacted with a tombstone. It was a large gash, but was already mostly healed. All that was left was a puckered, pink line that would eventually fade back to his skin tone.

"Don't see why you're doin' this – it'll heal by itself," he complained as she washed off the dried blood. She was unintentionally pushing against his ribs and it was hurting like a bitch. Willow shrugged and finished cleaning that particular wound before answering.

"Just habit I guess. Besides, I bet you don't exactly want to walk around coated in blood. Alright, stand up – I need to wrap your ribs or they'll heal funny and we'll have to break them again to fix them," she instructed him, and for once he obeyed without a snarky comment. It was odd having one of the Scoobies being nice to him without expecting anything in return. He always had liked Willow the most out of all of them. That certainly didn't mean he liked her, but his opinion was starting to sway in that favor. Too bad the witch was off her bird right now. He'd have to talk to ol' Rup about it.

"Ow! Bloody hell! Watch it!" He exclaimed in pain as she tightly wrapped his sides.

"Oh be quiet. Thought you were the 'Big Bad'?" She asked when she finished with his ribs. All that was left was his face. Since he was standing, Willow had to lean up in order to reach his bloodied nose and mouth. She quietly wiped at the blood on his face and felt her own face flush at the close proximity. The overwhelming urge to kiss him suddenly came over her, but she ignored it. _Bad thoughts crazy Willow_, she chastised herself and quickly finished with his face. A deep crimson blush had spread across her face and she glared when she caught the smug grin on his face. Annoyed, she grabbed his shirt off the table and tossed it at him. Spike didn't seem to be expecting it because rather than catch it, it smacked him right in the face. Willow laughed at the expression on his face when he pulled the black fabric off his face and dressed himself.

"Maybe you should tell ol' Rup about openin' that thing in the shop," he said after a few moments of comfortable silence in which Willow was cleaning out stuff in the kitchen. The bowl in her hands clattered loudly as she dropped it into the sink.

"W-why would I do that?" She finally asked. Giles would be angry with her for opening something when they didn't even know what it was, and the thought of telling him filled her with a strange, almost foreign feeling of unease.

"Because ever since you opened that damn thing you've been actin' strange," Spike replied as he reached for his duster and pulled it on. He was about to push past her to reach the front door – because when he said that, she left the kitchen area and got in front of him – when she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to a stop. He only stopped because he didn't feel like throwing her off.

"Why won't you tell me what happened?" She demanded of him and let his sleeve go. He was in the process of pulling out a cigarette, and shrugged as he lit it. Willow made a disgusted face, but otherwise ignored him smoking in Giles' place.

"Mostly cos 'm still tryin' to figure that out," was his vague and entirely unhelpful comment before he turned away from her and left out the front door, calling out a goodbye to Willow. Before he walked off though, he suddenly turned towards her. "Er – thanks for patching me up, Red. I appreciate it," he grudgingly admitted and then quickly wandered off. Willow shut the door with a sigh. _Why was Spike acting so weird? Why won't he tell me anything!?_ She thought in exasperation. Now wasn't the time to worry about it, she guessed, so she sat on the couch, planning to only rest for a moment, but exhaustion won out and she curled up in a ball on Giles' couch and fell asleep.


End file.
